Revenge of the Sith

The release date for Revenge of the Sith creeps ever nearer, and the book is starting to make the Amazon best-seller lists. Also, Matt will start his book-signing tour in support of RotS fairly soon as well.

Okay, here's the forum thread I've been looking for! I just finished the novelization of STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH last night. Pretty amazing! Lucas, bless his heart, has saved the best for last. We can only hope that the acting and direction won't let us down...

This movie gets off to a bang above the planet Coruscant, and never lets up. The Lucasfilm PR machine has always said that this movie was going to have more light-saber duels than any of the earlier ones, and they're not kidding! I'm very surprised that Lucasfilm has managed to keep some of this under wraps, particularly the secret plan of Darth Sidious to eliminate all of the Jedi in one fell swoop...

I'm trying desperately not to give away anything here. We need to create a thread with Spoilers, damn it! Which reminds me, earlier today I posted another message about this movie elsewhere on this site, so avoid it if you don't want to here my biggest question that was not answered in this movie (or maybe I just don't see it yet; I'll have to think about it some more).

Woah, I'm confused now tdeanatoz@yahoo, are you talking about the novelization or the movie?

And you realize of course that Lucas didn't write this book, right? It was Matthew Stover, so you could say that MS saved the best until last, unless you have seen the movie already, and you should be searching in the movie forum?

There's been a few comments in other threads in Matt's forum about the guidance Lucas gave him for the book... the book can rock, and the movie could still suck.

Firstly: this is a Stover novel, unquestionably. Lucas may own the characters, but few others could have given us the window into Anakin Skywalker's soul as he descended into the abyss. Secondly: we all know how this book will end. We know Anakin will become Darth Vader, apprentice to Palpatine. We know Palpatine will take over the Republic and make it into the Empire. We know that of the Jedi, only Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda will survive. What we're reading this book for is to see Anakin fall.

Stover does a great job of getting us into the characters. Anakin is front and center, but Mace and Obi Wan take their turns as well. However, he saves his best for the Anakin scenes. The Hero With No Fear in fact faces fear every day, as well as other emotions, emotions which his Jedi training should've taught him to let go of. Yet that is his greatest strength, and ultimately his greatest flaw. Anakin cuts a tragic figure, as struggling with conflicted loyalties, he inexorably descends towards darkness, to rise again as Darth Vader.

Even if you abhor novelizations, read this one. If you can't stand media tie-ins, read it. It is possibly one of the finest novelizations ever written.

I agree, in my opinion most of the Starwars EU novels and adaptations are very poor and often seem like the Authors find satisfaction seemingly just "happy to be there".

I want congratulate Mr. Stover for writing the best Starwars novel of any kidn I have ever read, and thank him and Sean Stewart (anotehr fabulous writer) for brining some respectability to that line of novels and a mythos that deserves such quality.

SPOILERS

Finsihed reading Revenge of the Sith probably more than a week ago. Incredbile. This was not a Starwars novel written by Mattstover, this was Matt Stover writing a Starwars novel. Great depiction of Palpatine, the expected wodnerful dispaly of action scenes, the proper chocie in cutting out the wookie segment. Mr. Stover set it off from his intro:

"The Age of Hero's has passed ,but they saved the best for last" (forgive the slight paraphrase)

Mr. Stover even showed a keen understanding of the mythos not forgetting the Droids after the incredible climax, and giving them small yet meaningful, rolls that defined what we have seen in the prior but chronologically laster classic films, and gave meaning to the line in the original mythos that always struck me as the most meaningful, "Do not underestimate the power of the Emperor"

Just wanted to thank Mr. Stover, and mention it has spurned me to reread Blade of Tyshalle (severely udnerated) and review it on my site soon.

Incredible job, if the movie is half as good, I can perhaps forget the dire quality of the first two prequels.

I haven't read many Star Wars books before. Only the Thrawn trilogy (I think that's what it's called) and Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Then I picked up both Shatterpoint and Revenge of the Sith. Shatterpoint was really good, and it gave me more of a knowledge of Mace Windu than I had before. So I'm glad I read it before RotS.

Revenge of the Sith was incredibly good.

It's one of my favorites of this year, along with The Warrior-Prophet by Scott Bakker. It definitely brought back my love for Star Wars, and it has also brought my expectations for the film way up. Which may be a bad thing.

Well, Sammie, I wouldn't go so far as to say you'd spoil the book, mostly because you can't spoil a Stover book, but some choose to see the movie first and that's fine. But...

The reason I wanted to read it first is I know from reading his prior works that Mr. Stover is excellent at telling the reader exactly what the character is feeling. Internally. Once again, he did a great job of this in RotS. I am not entirely confident that these feelings and thoughts will come across on screen as well as they did in print.

It all comes down to what you enjoy doing more: Seeing a movie or reading a book.